Race Prep Hobbies

These guys are great they treat there customers with respect they are very knowledgeable there prices are very competitive I bought my e revo there and planning on getting a slash for my kid there

Great place to go for my numerous rc cars. Always have what i need in stock and more, staff is extremely knowledgeable and friendly, prices are great, overall an outstanding experience with them over the last eight years. As long as i have anything rc this is my one stop shop.

What’s not to love about Race Prep Hobbies. How nice to not have to drive out of Simi Valley. My son and I have planes and a car. Robert is a pleasure to work with when it comes to planes. Very knowledgeable, helpful and pointed us in the right direction on a couple of purchases. He is always quick to ask how our flying is going.
I brought a few old cars in to see if we could get them running again and the service shop was quick to assess what we had. I have bought a stadium truck, three planes, radio, batteries, chargers etc. from Race Prep. They have a few other items too, like pinewood derby supplies we needed for Scouts. I am very happy to support another well run family business. Stop in you’ll be glad you did; oh, and Lucy the store pet, is a favorite of my son.

Great place, excellent inventory, knowledgeable and willing to answer as many questions you have and remain down to earth and friendly at the same time (I have a lot of questions).Best hobby shop I’ve been to.

Great little hobby shop of LA Ave in Simi.
Plenty of RC cars, boats and other fun toys. Nice selection with differing price ranges. Full repair shop.
Parking can be a bit tight at times, but the employees are friendly and knowledgeable.
Some Sundays you can find them out back racing cars on obstacle tracks. Great little outing for kids.
Wonderful hobby shop!

Great stuff, great selection, very knowledgeable staff. If you need it they have it. If they don’t have it, they’ll get it.

Friendly service. I’ve been in here a few times and the staff have always been very helpful.

One of the last good hobbie /​rc shops in So Cali.
Can be forgetful and goofy, and they sometimes forget to put all your parts back on after very agonizing sloooooow service, but still a good place to do business.
The friendly dog that greets you is always a welcome attraction for us.
We probably spend $ 1000+ a year with Race Prep and are much happier than when we did business with the stoners at Martys.
Martys was a very un-​fun, expensive, indifferent and painful place to shop and get service.
Race Prep is the way to roll though they are sometimes knuckleheads.
New location for 2013 BTW.

It has been about 25 years since I’d been to Race Prep. I was in the RC car hobby back when I was 11−15yrs. Living in the San Fernando Valley, and into RC cars, Race Prep was the best hobby shop AND Race Track in the area. Whatever parts you needed they had. Whatever help you needed they were there. But sadly, as those early years past and I got older, RC left my blood. Fast Forward 25 years and because of a Documentry I saw on DTV, RC cars peaked my interest again, but I knew nothing of the current trends. I drove out to a local track and got the information I needed to make an informed decision to get back into RC cars again. I made a very impulse buy and bought a used Losi TEN SCT. After researching my eyeballs out, the only hobby shops close to me to get the parts and accessories I would need were 20 – 25 miles from my home. The two premier shops that I reconized were Race Prep and Hot Rod Hobbies (which I will review also). I drove to HRH to buy parts and use their track. Great Experience. However, a week later after breaking some parts, I was preparing to trek the 20 miles to HRH. Then I decided that instead I would drive the extra 5 miles and check out Race Prep. OMG I am glad I did. Just as the other two reviews stated, the Customer Service by Spencer and another guy with glasses and a George Castanza body type were fantastic. They had the two parts I needed. But since I had come all this way, was there anything else I could use, I asked. I was then offered the RPM rear bumper. What a smart sales guy, it just so happened that I had that item in my shopping cart at a premier online hobby shop for upcomming purchase. I then asked if there was anything else they could recommend. I could not believe my eyes on what they pulled next as a recommendation! It was the Teckno Drive Shaft Kit which was also in my cart but back ordered and unavailable everywhere I called. I called a few other shops to inquire if they had it and was advise that the kit wasn’t out yet. But low and behold, Race Prep had it. I was stuned and Overwelmed with joy. This IMHO was a upgrade I wanted ASAP and they had it! Some additional hop up parts I wanted they had too which were in my cart for purchase. After my purchase, It just brought back such great memories of my early days spent at RP. What a great store and people working it. After an experience like this, I will be giving a majority of my RC dollars to RP. Now, yes, I can save a few bucks buying O.L. I’m cheap and saving a few bucks on each item is imp. to me, but after this experience, It is very worth it to me to drive and patronize such a great shop and pay the dollar or two additional. Keep up the great job and look forward to more trip to RP. Great job guys! PS, I didn’t get to meet the dog, but will when I return.

Horrible!!! I brought a car in to get some motor work done and a tune up which should of been a 2 – 5 day job according to the employee but no… i didn’t get my car back for over a month. I called every week and every time it was a different excuse. so finally i had enough and went in there and just took the car back. To their credit they did get it put back together but did not tune it yet, and took off some of the labor but when i got home and started it, there was fuel leaking all over the place. So i’m not sure whether it’s a lack of employees, too busy with bigger projects or just plain lazy but i’ll never go back there again.

First off I would like to comment on this T.B. review. Its a total crock and if you look through most of his reviews, they are all crap.
I recently dove into the RC world head first and became very educated quickly through the staff at Race Prep. I have been to all the shops, Marty’s, Hot Rod, Hobby People, you get the point. Now I will not bad mouth the others as they are decent as well but also have an attitude of being above working on cars and helping new people joining the sport. Spencer and the crew over there have been awesome to me from day one guiding me in the right direction and showing me how to work on my cars. I even have had one of them stop by my house after hours because I had a race the next day and was trying to complete a SC10 4×4 kit.
The «pitbull» comment is also ridiculous as I am a parent of two boys who love to go to the shop for the simple fact that «Lucy» (the dog) is there at the shop to greet them every time we show up. If you are not a dog person the shop and dog owner will have her in the back.
Once again, I have spent over $ 2,000 in the short time I have been in the sport and have turned into an avid track racer. Without the help of the staff here at Race Prep I would still be bashing in the street thinking my traxxas rustler was the best RC ever!
Give it a try, and watch out for the pitbull as she may actually try to give you a nice welcome kiss. She’s awesome

I had every intention of writing this review before Christmas, but time got away from me. I remembered that I had not posted a review when I went back to this hobby store a few days ago. So here it is: You may remember the «Shop Local» shopping campaign that was heavily advertised last December. I wanted to shop in my community, so I turned to the internet to find a local hobby store to shop at. This hobby store, Race Prep, came up on Unilocal. I almost didn’t go, as there was one review that gave the store a 5 star rating and one other very poor review. So I figured it was a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ proposition, as the store was close by, so I decided to go see for myself. This was to be a very expensive purchase, just over $ 600 and I wanted to see if I would feel like a valued customer as opposed to a customer number. Boy was I glad I stopped. The store greeter, Lucy, is a four legged adorable and very sweet pit bull. She quickly won me over and I hoped that the people behind the counter would be as nice. To my surprise, they were not just nice, but very knowledgeable. I learned that this is a family run business (just what I had been looking for) and that they were not only selling merchandise, but real face to face customer service. I spent more than I had expected to and as I mentioned before, went back again to buy another gift for my son. So, I strongly recommend that if you are looking for a hobby store that will be there when you need help and not just to sell stuff, go meet Lucy and talk to the guys. You won’t be sorry!

Shit hole. They even let a fucking pitbull roam free in the aisles.
Yeah, that’s fun.
Go to martys in TO! 1000% better.

Richard Carter, and the crew at Race Prep, can get you the stuff you need, for your RC needs. They got it for cars, boats & planes. They might even have trains, if you ask. They want you to have lots of fun. Great job guys!!!